IKON by Revo Technologies Ltd. - - FIRST TOUCHSCREEN RADIO

Just when you thought that all radios for the home are pretty much similar in nature save for the occasional model that breaks the mold where design is concerned, along comes the IKON by Revo Technologies Ltd. The IKON is unique in a sense where it will use the Venice 8 module with a color touchscreen display interface courtesy of Frontier Silicon in order to introduce a whole new way of interacting with a radio. The Revo IKON is touted to be the first radio that boasts a full color touchscreen interface that is more than capable of supporting advanced multimedia capabilities, offering consumers the luxury of owning an all-in-one device that can receive radio programs wirelessly through the Internet, DAB, FM, Last.fm as well as playing their music collection via a home network and docked iPod.

The Venice 8 FS2028 module will bring a fully customizable 320 x 240 color touch user interface to manufacturers, providing the opportunity to integrate seamless access to a vast range of audio visual content including Internet radio, home network streaming, premium audio streaming services from Last.fm and Pandora, WorldDMB profile DAB/DAB+/DMB-Radio, FM-RDS and USB audio playback. Depending on your choice, you can pick from several hardware and software configurations.

There is still no official announcement on when the IKON radio will be released and neither do we have any idea on how much it costs, but you can bet your bottom dollar that this ain’t your grandpappy’s analog radio that comes with a whole bunch of hisses and pops while trying to tune in to a suitable station! It is interesting to see touchscreen capability being integrated into many other appliances around the home after seeing the phenomenal success of the iPod touch and iPhone. Will we see a multi-touch capable IKON radio roll out in the future? One can only hope.